Dumping Grounds (Joshua Stokes Mysteries Book 1) (26 page)

Emma awoke from a drug-induced haze. A dark, shadowy figure loomed over her causing fear to rise up inside her. She tried to move, but discovered her arms were tied down. Immediately, she thought she was back in the dungeon. Panic set in. She began to holler out, struggle and jerk at the wrist tabs that held her down.

“Emma, it’s alright, it’s me, Sheriff Stokes.” Emma heard the voice, but it was vibrating, echoing. She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, shaking her lightly.

Joshua could see the fear in Emma’s eyes as he tried to wake her. He had not meant to scare her, but he had been waiting in her room for over an hour and she had not awakened. He wanted to let her know that Earl and Vernon were dead and they would never hurt her or anyone else again.

Slowly, Emma realized that it was the sheriff talking to her and her fear subsided somewhat, but she wondered why she was tied down.

“Sheriff, is that you?”

“Yes, Emma; it’s me.”

“Why am I still tied down?”

“Because of the drugs in your system, the doctors were afraid you would pull the IV lines out and hurt yourself. I am sure they will remove the restraints, now that you are awake.” Emma was relieved they would untie her. She wanted badly to get up and walk around without fear.

Emma felt another hand. This one was holding her left hand.

“Emma, can you hear me? Its mama,” Pearl said, relieved that Emma was finally waking. She had been asleep for over twenty hours.

“Mama, is that you? How did you find me?”

“Yes, Honey, it’s me. The Sheriff sent a deputy to fetch me,” Pearl said cheerfully, and then her mood sobered. “I am so sorry I did not realize sooner that you were missing. But-”

“Hush Mama, don’t worry. I’m alright now, that is all that matters,” Emma assured her. Joshua hated to interfere with their reunion, but he was ready to go outside. He needed a smoke.

He did not know what he was expecting Emma to say or do, or what her reaction might be. He was not looking for a pat on the back; he simply felt he had to reassure her of her safety, especially after what she had gone through while in Vernon and Earl’s captivity.

“Emma, I just wanted to make sure you knew that Earl and Vernon are both dead. They will never hurt you or anyone else, ever again.”

“Thank you, Sheriff Stokes. I don’t think I could have survived another day if not for you. They were getting ready to kill me. I knew they were not going to change their mind. They knew that I knew too much to let me live. At least, I knew you would look for me. They knew it too, though. I think that hurried their decision to finish me off.”

“Whatdayamean, you knew he would be looking for you?” Pearl asked, perplexed, looking from Emma to Joshua for an explanation. Emma smiled, “I’ll tell you about it after the sheriff leaves, Mama.” Joshua knew then that he could leave without much ado.

“If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to come see me,” he said, lightly squeezing Emma’s shoulder.

“You can bet on it, Sheriff. There is one thing you can do for me on your way out,” Emma said seriously. “Tell them to please get in here and take these restraints off me.”

“I certainly will,” Joshua said as he headed toward the door. He stopped by the nurse’s station, told them that it was safe to remove the restraints, and then went down the elevator to the main floor.

He was about to head toward the parking lot when he heard a familiar voice. It was Hannah Stringer.

“Sheriff, I just wanted to thank you for saving my niece’s life. That poor girl, I can only imagine the hell she’s gone through the last few days.”

“She seems to be handling it pretty well, now that she is alert. At least, she knows those two won’t be bothering her or anyone else, ever again.” Joshua said, reassuringly.

“I hate to say it Sheriff, but them being dead is not going to make a big difference. I know that from experience. I still have nightmares of Autry Reston bushwhacking us at the river, shooting Lacey, and then chasing me through the woods, trying to kill me. And I know for certain he’s dead.”

Joshua did not know how to respond to Hannah’s blunt statement. All he could think of to say was that he was sorry for what they had gone though.

He felt somewhat inadequate.

After they talked a couple of minutes, Joshua excused himself, saying he had to get to the station. What he really wanted was to get home, sit on his porch, drink some whiskey, and smoke a joint. He felt he deserved one after all he had gone through the last week or so.

He was tired, sleepy, and just plain miserable.

When he drove into his yard though, he knew there would be no rest for him. He was surprised to see Hook’s old work truck parked beside his patrol car.

“What the hell you up to, Hook” Joshua asked, as he got out of his truck and walked over to his patrol car. Hook had both front doors open and his legs were hanging out the passenger side.

“I come by here to check on you and that boy from the garage was here replacing the tires on your vehicle. When he finished, I saw that you still had not installed your 8-track player; it was laying on the seat.

I know how fond you are of your music, Hoss. So’s I figured I would lend a helping hand. I just finished hooking up the speakers; she’s ready to try out now.” Joshua could not help but to smile. He had missed being in control of his listening pleasure.

James turned and sat upright in the passenger seat. Joshua went around to the driver’s side and crawled in. He fished through his collection of tapes and chose Steppenwolf; then inserted the tape into the player.

“Be right back,” Joshua said, getting out and walking toward his cabin. James watched. When Joshua returned, he had a small pouch of tobacco and some rolling papers. He sat down and began rolling a fat one.

“Confiscated this from Junior Vice a few months ago,” he said “it ought to be some good shit; home grown.” Joshua lit it and sucked in a lung full then passed it to James. They both hit the joint several times before they spoke again.

“Well, did you catch our goat molesters?” James asked.

“Not exactly, Hook. Ended up having to kill both of them, wouldn’t no stopping em if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah I do, Hoss, yeah I do. So, was they the ones that killed my goats?”

“Yep, it was them alright. They even had your goat’s heads mounted on the shelves with the heads of the women they killed. Bad thing about it, I think they learned it from their old man. Some of the heads in that room was older than they were.”

Remembering the heads of the women on the shelves caused Joshua to think of his mother. He still wondered if her head was among those there.

“Da’yum, you don’t say.I knew something wouldn’t right with those boys. They was strange from the get go then. If their old man was like that, they didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of being normal.”

“What’s normal, Hook? Sometimes, I don’t even know what that means anymore.”

“Look Hoss, don’t kid yourself. You have not lived this long without knowing the difference.”

“Yeah, I reckon I do.” Joshua said thoughtfully.

“I know you do. You was the one that kept us from getting into too much mischief during our teenage years,” James said before hitting the joint again, holding his breath.

Joshua suddenly blurted out what had been on his mind since the day before. “Hook, I think their old man killed my mama. I don’t think she just took off like my father said she did.” James choked on the smoke he was holding down as he exhaled.

“We was just boy’s back then, Josh.” James said between coughs. “I barely remember your mama. I know she was at church every time we went until I was about eleven or twelve, then y’all just stopped coming. Don’t remember anything else or ever hearing anybody say anything bad about her.”

“Do you remember when I was dating Annabel Pierce, in high school?”

“Of course I do, had a crush on her myself. She sure was a pretty thing and plumb full of mischief!”

“Do you believe in superstition and such, Hook?”

“It depends on who’s telling it,” James said seriously.

“Well, Annabel drug me over to Josiah Long’s to have our palms read and fortunes told. He predicted my father’s death and he said something about my mama, but I dismissed it; hell, I didn’t even listen to it. I had put her out of my mind way before then.”

“What did he say?”

“I don’t know; like I said, I closed my mind, didn’t even listen to what he had to say about her. The only thing I remember him saying besides telling me that my old man was going to die was that, two wrongs don’t make a right.”

“I wonder what he meant by that?” James asked.

“I don’t know, but now, it’s driving me frigging nuts trying to figure it out!”

“You’re just tired, Hoss.” James said, handing Joshua the joint. “You need yourself a vacation.

I’ve been thinking about going over to Ferriday, Louisiana for a little fishing trip. You ought to come too. John Parker said he caught two hundred shell crackers and bream in one day out there last year. That’s a lot of fish!

It would be well worth it, for us to go over there for a few days. Have us a big fish fry when get back.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Hook. I do need to get away from here for a spell. I have several months of vacation time saved up; when do you plan on going?”

“We can go as soon as you can get away. I work for myself; I can take off whenever I want to.”

“Well, shit.The only thing holding me up is the paperwork from these beheadings,” Joshua said, taking another hit off the joint and passing it back to James.

“I will get that done ASAP and holler at you soon as I know when I can leave.”

“Good deal, Lucille,” James said as he leaned further back in the seat and propped his feet in the opening between the car door and the body of the car. Joshua was doing the same thing on the other side.

“When we get back, I might open up a cold case unit,” Joshua said, thinking of his mother’s disappearance. “Try to solve some of those murders from way back when. There bound to be someone left who remembers women going missing around here.”

“Yep, there ought to be, Hoss. You do that;
after
we get back.” James said, putting emphases on the word after.

Joshua pulled a fifth of whiskey out from under the seat and popped the cork on it. He took a big swig then passed the bottle to James.

About that time, Joshua’s favorite song began playing on the 8-track player; he and James both burst out in song.

“
You know I smoked a lot of grass, oh Lord, I popped a lot of pills,
” sung Steppenwolf, the sheriff and Hook was singing right along with him.

“
You know the dealer; the dealer is a man, with a lid of grass in his hand.

Aw… but the pusher is a monster, Good God, he’s not a natural man.

For a nickel, lord he’ll sell you lots of sweet dreams,

Oh Lord, he’ll leave your mind to scream.

I said god… damn
!” screamed Steppenwolf, “
Goddamn the pusher man
!” Stokes and Hook sung along at the top of their lungs. Joshua was feeling good. For the moment, he was happy… enjoying the whiskey, the prime marijuana, the company of an old friend, temporarily forgetting all of his troubles…

The End ~

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I grew up in a family of storytellers on both the maternal and paternal sides of my family. I could sit for hours listening to them tell stories passed down from ancestors and stories of their own about how it was when they were growing up. I especially loved the ghost stories!

When the stories ended, I wanted more... many times, I concocted my own stories where I would journey with these mysterious people, my ancestors. I found them fascinating. All I knew about them was what my parents and grandparents told me. However, it was never enough, I always wanted more...

I began researching genealogy. What I learned through genealogy research still did not fill the void. I needed more, so, in my mind I invented more!

Somehow, I felt as though I had known each character personally, sat and talked with them about their lives. I gave each a personality and a face. I could do that because of the descriptive storytelling ability of the storytellers. I want to be like that.

I want to share my stories with all of those around me. Those who enjoy journeying into another world, a world that makes us forget about our troubles. A mysterious world, that exists only between the pages of a book.

My name is Susan Cobb Beck. I also write under the pseudonym, Lila Beckham.

I live along the coast in Southern Alabama with my husband, three children, three dogs and half a dozen cats :)